Pop Culture Happy Hour guests and hosts share what’s bringing them joy : NPR

This week, the Paralympics started, The West Wing celebrated and that was not Tom Hanks.

Here’s what NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.

Disaster Autopsy

Disaster Autopsy is a Nat Geo show available on Hulu. There are eight episodes, and they take a disaster — like a building collapse, or a huge fire, or a train crash — and they go back and figure out exactly what the chain of events was that led up to it. Most of the time it traces back to some person who didn’t do what they were supposed to do. Here’s how they present the information: Picture Star Wars, where they’re looking at the war plans and they’re all standing around a lit, round table. There are floating graphics and models projected and they can spin them with their hands and move time forward and back. And there’s a panel of experts, scientists and journalists. It is the corniest possible presentation of what I found to be absolutely fascinating information. If you like mysteries or puzzles, or details like “the lubricating grease in the subway station would not have been able to catch fire if it were not also full of dust and rat fur” — you’re going to love Disaster Autopsy. — Linda Holmes

Cockroach Poker

Cockroach Poker is a card game that is all about bluffing. You start with a hand of whimsically illustrated creatures — rats, cockroaches, stink bugs, spiders. You play the game by handing one of your cards face down to another player and telling them what it is — and maybe you’re lying. They can either play that card or pass it. If they play it, they must announce before looking at it whether they believe you or not. If they’re right, you keep the card and place it face up in front of you. If they’re wrong, they keep the card and place it face up in front of them. You do not want to keep these cards because when you get four cards of the same critter, you lose. The game is so fun because once you see someone having a bunch of cards in front of them of the same kind, the entire table turns on them. There is only one loser in this game — everybody else wins. It is so simple, it is so fun, and it’s just a little bit evil. — Glen Weldon
 

Mrs. Davis

I have finally gotten my act together and started watching the 2023 Peacock original series Mrs. Davis. It’s so good. Betty Gilpin is so good. Gilpin plays Simone, a nun who gets ousted from her beloved convent by a very ominous AI figure. The AI is known as “Mrs. Davis” and the rest of society has pretty much entirely bought into it. Simone sets out on a crusade to recover the Holy Grail, which is the only object that can thwart this all-knowing, all-seeing AI. The premise is zany and wild, and Betty Gilpin is one of the most original, interesting, lively actors working today. I’m having a blast. (You can read Glen’s review of the show here.) — Jordan Crucchiola

More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter

by Linda Holmes

I greatly enjoyed the CBC podcast Broomgate: A Curling Scandal, and even if you’re the kind of person who finds yourself enchanted by curling only once every four years at the Olympics, you might enjoy it too.

The new season of Only Murders in the Building is probably a little too overstuffed with guests (including friend of PCHH Kumail Nanjiani!), but it has one quality that makes just about everything well worth a watch: Richard Kind is in it.

Have you watched Shohei Ohtani’s dog, Decoy, delivering the first pitch at a Dodgers game this week? If you have not, I encourage you to do so right now.

Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment “What’s Making Us Happy” for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.